The Health Hydro
History of the Health Hydro
Background and the formation of the Great Western Railway Medical Fund Society
The Great Western Railway (GWR) was established in 1833 to connect Bristol and London, reaching Swindon in 1840. The opening of the principal locomotive works in Swindon in 1843 transformed the town from a small hilltop market settlement into a major industrial centre.
The Great Western Railway Medical Fund Society, originally known as the Sick Club, was established in 1847. Its purpose was to provide medicine and medical care for men employed at the Swindon Works, as well as their wives and families.
The scheme was funded through compulsory subscriptions taken from employees’ wages. Contributions ranged from four pence for married men to one and a half pence for boys earning less than ten shillings per week.
As the Works expanded, the Medical Fund Society grew. In 1870, a cottage hospital was established in the building now known as the Central Community Centre on Faringdon Road. It included a five-bed ward, operating room, post-mortem room, morgue, dispensary, reception, and formal gardens at the front.
1891 to 1947: GWR Medical Fund Baths and Dispensary
The Health Hydro, built between 1891 and 1892, was the Medical Fund Society’s most ambitious project. Washing baths were added in 1898 to 1899, Turkish and Russian baths in 1904 to 1905, and further extensions in 1911.
Initially known as the Swimming Baths and Dispensary, the building was run by a committee of GWR employees elected by their colleagues.
Designed in the Queen Anne style by JJ Smith of Swindon, the complex occupies an entire block. It includes washing baths, two swimming pools, and Turkish and Russian baths on the wet side, alongside a dispensary and consulting rooms on the dry side. These rooms supported services including dentistry, ophthalmology, chiropody, psychology, and physiotherapy.
The swimming pools, supported by iron trusses manufactured at the Works, resemble railway stations in scale. Many of the materials used throughout the building, including bricks, stained glass windows, joinery, and metal fittings, were also produced locally at the Works.
The large pool, originally for men, is 33 and one third metres long, five lanes wide, and between one and two metres deep. The smaller pool was intended for women and children. While the Russian baths have been removed, the Turkish Baths remain the oldest Victorian-style Turkish baths in the UK.
By 1905, staff included 11 doctors, a dental surgeon, an assistant dentist, and seven dispensers. Facilities also included hairdressing and shaving salons. Membership of the Medical Fund Society was compulsory for Great Western Railway employees in Swindon and grew from around 500 members to 15,300 by 1908.
Water for the pools was pumped three quarters of a mile from the Works via a tunnel beneath Faringdon Road. This tunnel, large enough to walk through, also carried steam heating and other utilities.
During winter months, the pools could not be kept open. The large pool was boarded over and used for dances, concerts, roller skating, boxing competitions, and a Royal Hunt Ball.
During the First World War, the Works were taken over for the war effort and the Health Hydro buildings were converted into a military hospital. The swimming pools were floored over to create ward spaces and later reinstated after 1918.
In September 1916, the Medical Fund Society faced severe financial difficulty. With many members away fighting and unable to pay subscriptions, the Society was close to collapse. Some committee members proposed selling assets and closing the service.
Others feared this would remove access to healthcare for thousands of workers. A resolution was reached when George Brunger, a shop steward and union representative, proposed the formation of a special committee to explore solutions.
The committee modernised management practices and restructured finances, placing the Society on a sustainable footing. George Brunger chaired the committee until 1948, when the Medical Fund Society was taken over by the newly formed NHS.
1947 to 1986: NHS health centre and Milton Road Baths
From 1947, the Milton Road Health Centre operated from the dry side of the building. Services included GP practices, a pharmacy, chiropodists, and opticians. Many local people still remember the brass tokens issued to patients waiting for appointments.
In 1985, the Milton Road Health Centre closed and services moved to a new facility in Carfax Street, which has since been demolished. Gordon Hill, Secretary of the Wiltshire Pharmaceutical Committee, described Milton Road as “the oldest health centre in the world, the very first ever seen.”
From 1986: the Health Hydro
In 1986, the Council became responsible for the building and carried out refurbishment works. The site reopened as the Health Hydro, with the dry-side consulting rooms used for complementary therapies and wellbeing activities.
These included acupuncture, Alexander technique, aromatherapy, hypnotherapy, homeopathy, massage, first aid training, stress management, weight management, reflexology, rebirthing, yoga, numerology, and a Well Woman Centre. Exercise rooms were also linked to the Turkish Baths, with sun beds and infra-red saunas.
Swimming, canoeing, scuba diving, lifesaving, and aquarobics continued in the pools, alongside adult and junior swimming lessons. The smaller pool was particularly suited to children and less confident swimmers.
In 1993, the tunnel connecting the baths to the former rail works was filled in after being flooded for some time.
In 2014, Greenwich Leisure Limited, trading as Better, took over the operation of Swindon’s leisure centres. Both swimming pools and the Turkish Baths continued to operate, although the small pool closed in January 2016.
In November 2019, the Health Hydro was designated a Grade II* listed building by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, on the advice of Historic England. Fewer than six per cent of listed buildings hold this status, recognising it as a particularly important building of more than special interest.
Useful resources
- DIA Conservation Management Plan 2018 (PDF)
- Fourth Street Viability Appraisal 2018 (PDF)
- Swindon's Health Hydro vision statement (PDF)
- A Century of Medical Service by Bernard Darwin, available through Local Studies at Central Library or from the Friends of the Health Hydro
- A three-minute film produced in 2021 by Create Studios’ Mass Media Summer School, featuring historic images and footage of the building
